Hamilton won the gong two years ago with his book on Brian Clough, Provided You Don't Kiss Me. Now he's done it again. I can hear the gnashing of teeth around the best bars in town and beyond. I found Christian Ryan's book on Kim Hughes the best cricket read of the year, but what do I know? You can't take anything away from Duncan's lovingly forensic treatment of a man few of us really could ever know.

Larwood emerged from his Nottingham pit to blast Don Bradman into something like mortality and then was discarded by the establishment because they couldn't stomach the way he did it. If you can't identify with that sort of heroism, we are not breathing the same oxygen. You've got to read Duncan's book. He captures an era so long ago so well it's almost as if he were there.

The standard in 2009 was pretty good (I have to say that, having sneaked on to the long list), and how good is that in the credit-crunched noughties? Writers have got to get out there and take risks, otherwise we will end up with an anodyne list of ghosted rhubarb. I'm still not comfortable with ghosted books getting on the list. Marcus Trescothick won it last year and, good book as it was, Marcus did not write a word of it. John Inverdale, presenting for Radio 5 Live, said all the right things to Tresco but this should be an award for writers, not their sometimes fascinating subjects.

What is worth celebrating even more though than Duncan's double triumph is William Hills's commitment to the printed word. This is an award that the New Zealand publishing guru John Gaustad set in train 20 years ago, when he set up his Sportspages shop in Charing Cross Road in London. For a variety of reasons, that shop is not there any more. But Hills have stuck with Gaustad and with the awards. They give young and old writers alike incentive to stretch themselves – as long as publishers keep the faith. So far, they have and that is why we should celebrate not only Duncan Hamilton's book but anyone who steps up to the mark.

The mood was that Hamilton was a good force moving among us, a writer who looks at sport from a different angle. In an industry that sometimes values instant headlines above considered analysis, books such as this are a reminder that there is, indeed, another point of view.